Phix says that like it’ll be impossible for Shelly to kill anyone unless they are really in need of getting killed, and that if they’re innocent then she WON’T be able kill then even if she tried to…and that she’s flat out incapable of ACCIDENTALLY killing anyone…

No, I think she’s just trying to convince Shelly that she’s not a monster – giving her the confidence she’s looking for. I don’t think there’s any implication that Shelly is supernaturally incapable of harming innocents…

2 – Kudos to Phix for throwing in an emotional conflict in the middle of Shelly’s effort at concentration. At the top of the list of distractors are emotional/sexual threats/enticements, often more powerful than physical threats. For Shelly to get her game on, she needs to be able to separate the two from her needs of the moment.

SEAL and other rigorous military training courses put you though physical and emotional hell because you will eventually have to deal with situations like that — and you now have the experience to look back upon in context with the training. It’s not about maliciously grinding tired, hungry people down with a 20 mile march; it’s showing then how to be tired and hungry after a 20 mile march, and still being able to do the job!

Well, she didn’t actually gut him. Granted, if not for his healing factor, Justin would have some nasty scars, but the force she used wasn’t lethal. I know I’m stating the obvious, but Phix seems to be saying that Shinxes have internal failsafes that keep them from killing or hurting those that don’t deserve it.

That also raises a question. If Shelly has those failsafes, what about Justin triggered her response at Punk Yoga? Did she her subconcious pick up his healing factor and allow her to hurt him, or does something Justin has done in the past warrant that kind of response. Shelly may not be conciously aware of it, but her finely tuned Sphinxy senses may have picked up on something in his character they didn’t like.

No, this is all testing Shelly’s emotional restraint. She’s killed herself 56 times, how deserving was that? Or Monica? Phix needs to make Shelly open up about it, or she’ll never get to the root of her issues.

Phix is training, debriefing and counseling Shelly all at the same time.

We do not know what went down in the time forest as far as anyone she might have killed (revisit later?), and everyone is right, she has not gone all-out-gangsta-sphinx on anyone…yet. I think that Phix’s calm certainty suggests that it is ingrained in Sphinx DNA to only destroy demons and spare humans, unless they are really bad at riddles.

I suppose the walls of skulls and depths of regrets Phix and Shelly are presented with could represent their burden of immortality in face of mortals, rather than a history of deadly force in the service of guardianship.

Phix’s line sounds like it’s an attitude she hears from other sphinxes all the time, especially the apos. Sounds like she’s no stranger to guilt, either.

Fair point. Maybe Phix is just telling Shelly that she trusts her judgement. After all, she’s known her for eighty thousand years. I think I only just realized how close these two actually are and how much of a mother figure Phix is to Shelly.

Ok, again I have gone back to try and understand the whole Shelly Sphinx thing. I experienced the whole storyline as it played out strip by strip originally and have probably gone back over it 3 or 4 times already.

It must be me because I still can’t resolve who this character is. My brain still sees her as a separate character than the radioactive Shelly. I have tried to determine where I get derailed and this strip must of knocked something loose.

It is the unexplained “automatic” nature of her nature that throws me. Essentially one of the least “empowered” characters in terms of Wapsi abilities suddenly manifests some of the most powerful aspects depicted so far, i.e. The Spinx paradigm and related back-story.

Then for good measure we make sure her boyfriend has special healing powers too. Oh, and now that she is so powerful lets make sure that her well established explosive temper and lack of thinking things through is “sub-consciously” or “automatically” governed.

What!?! If that is so – and I will take it as such because it has been already stated – then all the anguish and self-reproach that Phix spent multiple strips mulling over are from some basic break-down because according to her own words, only those who deserve it – get it.

Huh?

What this reduces ShellySphix (Shelix) too is a whiny and frustrated character who lacks self control and really should not worry about the consequences of her actions because if someone gets hurt… they had it coming.

I really can’t put Shelix any lower on my list-o-characters as she has held the lowest point for many years now. I was starting to warm up to her just about the time the original Shelly got irradiated.

There’s a lot of confusion to unpack here, and I just woke up and all I have is this iPad.

Okay… Thematically, in Wapsi Square, rage in the face of the oppression of the powerless has been a core element since the introduction of the Golem Girls, but its first inkling is in our introduction to Shelly in episode #3. She yells that magic is making her do something she doesn’t understand. Being at the mercy of fate and others’ power has defined this character all along, and her reactions have been consistent: she will settle for control of her own little moments of happiness, until she encounters a new wrong, and then her pent-up frustrations with fate come out in an exponential rage.

More importantly, it seems others, mostly still unknown characters, have been preparing to keep Shelly on a leash against the day she has these titanic powers:

The “voodoo doll” was just the first– who made that?

The Lanthian chotskis that hypnotized her are another, perhaps the strangest of all. Their paralyzing power was used on the golems and Monica, but Shelly wasn’t immune. A dangerous gambit when the sacrificial plan called for her to be the only one able to move. However, before describing her childhood incident, Shelly did say she wanted Bud’s (self-)restraint. Apparently, others did not trust Shelly to attain that; but who made the chotskis and left them with Shelly’s mother?

Finally, Tina pushing her around. Tina doesn’t like doing that to humans, but almost reveled in her ability to keep Shelly on a short leash. Plus, “kill her over there” isn’t helping with Shell’s executioner issues.

Shelly has been a killing machine that outside parties have been working to manipulate or constrain since we first met her. Since we like her as a person, this softshoe slavery is particularly rankling, and who is behind this has been one of the longest arcs of the series.

—

I’ll address some of the other confusions after I get some breakfast. But in short: Kevin and Alan are nonmagical humans and we just saw them this week.

Justin the perfect boyfriend. (“Then for good measure we make sure her boyfriend has special healing powers too”.) This can’t be dismissed a lazy storytelling for a number of reasons. Firstly, Teh Funny: as a comedy set-up, it’s gold. And Paul subverts it before it’s revealed, which is what you should always do when not writing farce.

Justin’s condition is not tangential. We’ve just had it revealed that “Crispy” is no sad little lost ghost, but an enigma among Titans: Bia, one of the binders of Prometheus. Bia isn’t known for anything else. I don’t think any modern fiction author has even noticed her before.

I’m enjoying that unique experience.

Anyway, Prometheus was eternally self-healing. He is now clearly part of this story, though Justin seems to be more related to Epimetheus, Pro’s brother.* These connections mean that Justin’s being a superselfhealer isn’t just a convenient plot device.

Paul left hints that Justin was immune to disease before Shelly left for the Time Forest. And it was made fairly clear that Brandi led Justin toward Shelly and away from Bud.

Justin would make a great boyfriend for any sympathetic monster girl of great destructive potential. But Brandi must have her reasons to risk her (and Shelly’s) friendship with Bud to have pulled strings behind the scenes.

—
*Epimetheus (“Afterthought”) was shown as a dumb doofus compared to Pro’s smarts in extant mythology. But I suspect in earlier unattested manifestations they were understood as more balanced: Prometheus could see potential, but was always reckless, Epimetheus was never innovative… but learned from his mistakes. Prometheus’ recklessness survived into written myth, and I’ve long distrusted the glorification of “Forethought” and the denigration of “Afterthought” in light of Prometheus’ egotistic errors. Which now seems to be a prime mover of the Wapsi Chimeric backstory.

…
…Come to think of it (qed) that makes Prometheus’ cruel punishment make sense. The only thing he was allowed to foresee was an eagle coming for his liver. And he had to experience it enough times to get the value of learning from past blunders. For humans, it would be “okay already, I get it” but for Pro, this may have been a blind spot or disability.

Total regeneration inhibiting the brain’s ability to learn. Huh. How’d they know that.

Hmmm. Your comment reminds me of a story of Hugin and Munin, discussing Balder’s death, where Munin (Memory) has blurted out the events, but Hugin needs to ponder it and unpack its meaning–and he shows that Balder’s death was not Loki’s fault–and therefore, through other considerations, Ragnarok is not fated to be lost!

Here memory is “forethought,” and needs “afterthought” to learn from experience.

“My brain still sees her as a separate character than the radioactive Shelly.” She is a seperate character from radioactive Shelly. When we switch to the scene of the time forrest, we are meant to think that the Shelly that we first see is the one we have been following all along, she isn’t. The one we’ve been following is actually the sphinx in that scene. Time flows backwards there, remember?! The point we see them both together, is where their respective time-lines converge.

“What!?! If that is so – and I will take it as such because it has been already stated – then all the anguish and self-reproach that Phix spent multiple strips mulling over are from some basic break-down because according to her own words, only those who deserve it – get it.” Sometimes the correct actions are emotionally devestating. Reference *Spoiler Alert*……. Travis having to kill Old Yeller, his best friend, companion, and savior. Now imagine having to do this hundreds of times.

This comic was billed as a “slice of supernatural life.” I think ‘slice’ is a key word here. When you observe people and their interactions in real life, we sometimes never know the context behind those interactions. I think in my humble opinion, you are reading the comic wrong. Enjoy the artwork, observe the interactions between characters and enjoy them. Don’t try and make sense, just watch. If, however, something happens to explain a situation further, enjoy that fact. Don’t demand it, take it as a bonus. I’ve been reading this strip, since a little before the golem girls showed up. I remember the blurb informing me that they were coming. Having a willing sense of suspension of disbelief is essential in almost all SF/fantasy novels. It is not good to have ‘fridge logic’ or you miss out on fun stuff. It’s like noise in space. I know that the ships can’t make noise in space, but I let it slide, knowing it is there to set a mood, like music. Paul has funny stuff, silly stuff, disgusting stuff, spooky stuff, mundane stuff, disturbing stuff, and dare I say it ‘fan service stuff.’ I like it all. Paul is sneaky enough to wrap up loose ends when you least expect it, so I keep reading and watching. I think you should, but if you don’t— that’s okay too. I’ve started reading webcomics that I have eventually abandoned. Life is too short to worry about silly stuff. Enjoy or don’t.

I actually thought it was about maintaining a rotating and oscillating device so that it continues to produce airflow in a steady and uniform manner. 😉 English is an organic language with no central authority to make the creation or adaption of new words and phrases illeagal, and I’m happy about that. The only constant is change and not the monetary kind, either. I wrote the comment to a specific audience and even put quotes around it. I don’t know what more I could’ve done other than not comment. In retrospect, that might have been the wiser choice, because I don’t mean to offend or make uncomfortable any reader of this comic. “Hasta la vista baby.” 🙂

Well, darn. The gateway error ett my comment from this morning. Shelly ought to keep the cherubic little wings; this would illustrate to all her kind, angellic “DON’T MESS WITH THAT YAAAARRGH! COME BACK HERE YOU MESSED UP PUNK!”

Loki… Definitely Loki 😀 … i mean come on!… just look at how many times he put on that “silly-but-dramatic” horned helmet of his, just to have to take it off again, because he was plot-railroaded into doing it…

I think that a lot of people are overthinking it – the whole “you’re not a werewolf” bit doesn’t necessarily mean that Shelly has an infallible good-vs-evil sense, just that sphinxes aren’t mindless killers, and she’s no more likely to attempt to kill someone than she was when she still believed herself to be entirely human.

In other words – if she attempts to kill someone it will be her deliberate choice, not some sphinx reflex. Even ordinary humans can kill someone by accident. And a 90 pound weakling can kill dozens by something as simple as driving a car into a packed bus stop.

Is Shellinx bigger than Phix? When I’ve seen Shelly sphinxed out, she seems more imposing because her human body’s pumped-upness gets carried over to her sphinx form. Or maybe being more in control, when Phix goes from human to sphinx, she might have a maximum “comfy” size that she stops at, and Shelly lacks that control.

I can see Paul doing some comedy “accidents” as Shelly learns to use the Sphinx power, big sphinx head on her sized body, Shelly normal sized, but with Sphinx’s lion hair all over, Shelly with giant lion feet.
One things for certain, when she does learn to use this power properly, she will never be at a loss for Halloween “costumes” ever again…